CAPA Live: US big 3 airlines apply differing strengths in crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in airlines worldwide pivoting to their respective strengths in order to stem the continuing bleeding.

In the US, each of the country’s large US global airline operators – American, Delta and United – have turned to a different area of strength, ranging from cargo to brand loyalty.

Those airlines have also adopted differing approaches to fleet management, with American and Delta opting to retire aircraft at a faster rate than United.

Of course, those companies and all airlines continue to look for an inflection point, where a pronounced recovery in demand will occur, but until that happens they will continue working to leverage the aspects of their business that can quickly produce benefits as pandemic losses mount.